PCN from Civil Enforcement Ltd - Pyle St, Newport

PeteMat

Hi All

I am new to the forum but have read a lot of posts giving advice on what to do with PCNs. I'd appreciate some advice on our specific case if anyone can help?

We Parked at Pyle St Carpark, Newport, Isle of Wight to attend a baptism, which ran over and the result was that we were 40mins over the 1.5hr free parking. I accept that we overstayed the limit.

However, we went to pay for the additional time (should have been £1), it was not clear where the machine was (turned out to be in a Co-op supermarket outside of the carpark itself, took 15 minutes to find it!),after entering the registration number, the machine tells you (apparently based on when you entered the carpark) how much to pay. The machine said £00.00 to pay. We were confused by this but took it for its word (being a Sunday we thought that maybe it was actually free on that day). So we got in the car and left.

After this we checked with some friends who had also been at the batism. parked there at the same time, had left at the same time (actually they had got there about 20mins before u so they were there longer) and had been faced with the same £00.00 to pay on the machine.

When we got home (at 11:00 that night), my wife had got a text from another couple who had been at the carpark (so that's 3 sets of us who had had the same issue) that they had phoned up the carparking payment line and had been told they needed to pay. So to be on the safe side we thought we'd better phone up too. First thing in the morning on the Monday we called the "phoneandpay" line for the carpark and told them about the situation. They advised to pay the £1 and that everything should be fine.

Bank Statement came in payment taken £1, from PhoneandPay, St Albans. Excellent done and dusted.

Oh no, here come the letters:

1) PCN (Blue) from Civil Enforcement Ltd £90 or £45 if paid within 14days - IGNORED on the advise of this forum

2) Parking Contravention Enforcement Notice Reminder (PEENR) Final Reminder before legal action, again from Civil Enforcement Ltd. Amount £90 - IGNORED

3) New Letter ( 5 months after the parking date) - "Demand for payment of an unpaid parking charge £140", with 14 days to pay. This time from Debt Recovery Plus - IGNORED but starting to get a little worried. Read that these Parking enforcement companies sell on thier debt to these debt collection agencies.

4) Just had a new letter from Debt Recovery Plus - "Notice of intended Court Action - unpaid parking charge £140". So now I'm getting pretty worried.

So I guess the question is.....IF I ignore this one and the case does go to court (I know its unlikely based on what everyone says over and over again on here), what are my chances based on the facts given above? I can prove:

1) That I made a £1 payment on the 24th (the day after the parking), I have a bank statement to that effect plus a receipt from "phoneandpay"

2) I have credible witnesses who also had the same issue with the payment machne, paid their £1 either on the day or the day after, yet have not had any fines

Has anyone got any advice? Or is it simply.....IGNORE.

Thanks

Umkomaas

CEL are issuing Court papers. But don't panic!

You do need to do some reading to get to understand all this stuff, and this is the foremost bit of information you can read - anywhere.

Come back if you don't understand anything.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

PeteMat

Thanks Umkomaas

Ok so i've read quite a lot of information now. Most of it though seems to contradict what a lot of people are saying on here to ignore the letters (which is what I had done).

All the information seems to suggest that I needed to have appealed to Civil Enforcement Ltd within the 28 day limit and then if rejected appeal to POPLA.

Unfortunately this time has been and gone by some time.

The date of parking was 23/6/13
The 1st letter from CEL came on the 3/7/13
The 2nd Letter from CEL cam on the 24/7/13
The 1st Letter from Debt Recovery Plus came on 11/11/13
The last letter from Debt Recovery Plus came on the 26/11/13

What there doesn't seem to be (or I can't find it) is any advice of what to do if I hadn't appealed? I'm perfectly willing now if needs be to appeal but would it be pointless?

Any advice? Should I just prepare for a county court summons? If so (and given my case below) is it worth fighting or not?

Thanks

Coupon-mad

PeteMat wrote: »

Ok so i've read quite a lot of information now. Most of it though seems to contradict what a lot of people are saying on here to ignore the letters (which is what I had done).

Unless your PCN was dated before Easter you would struggle to show us any threads since then where we have advised ignoring a fake PCN. Have you been reading old threads? WHY? No wonder you seem to have missed the point in our advice on this forum.

PeteMat wrote: »

What there doesn't seem to be (or I can't find it) is any advice of what to do if I hadn't appealed? I'm perfectly willing now if needs be to appeal but would it be pointless?

I have to assume you have read the sticky threads at the top of this forum?!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

'NEWBIES, READ THIS FIRST!' answers most things INCLUDING WHAT TO DO IF 'TOO LATE' TO APPEAL (ON THE FACE OF IT)!!

You should also read the 'Successful complaints about PPCs' thread and consider complaining to the landowner or onsite Manager of this car park.

PeteMat wrote: »

Any advice? Should I just prepare for a county court summons? If so (and given my case below) is it worth fighting or not?

''Summons'', LOL! Not again?! THIS ISN'T A CRIMINAL THING!

A small claim would be 'fairly' simple/standard to defend against CEL - particularly if you have never named the driver and never written any daft admission like 'I accept we did wrong'. CEL have lost one and thrown the towel in on EVERY other one we & pepipoo forum have helped people defend against them this year so far. And that's only a dozen or so...nothing like ParkingEye's efforts. Most CEL cases never end up with small claim papers.

IT IS NOT A SUMMONS - the amount of people who use that word is astonishing! This isn't a criminal thing even if they chance a small claim and is defendable, not a threat to your credit rating and even if you lose, you 'don't even have to sit on the naughty step' (thanks to nigelbb for that phrase I think).

Redx

its also not the first time either, although the law changed since this article I found on google yesterday having read your post in somebody elses thread

http://iwcp.co.uk/news/news/fines-row-at-car-park-42522.aspx

it shows its been happening for some time however

also note, the paper got the name wrong too, as they mention the word FINE , when its actually a charge

Coupon-mad

Can I just show all 4 of you who are going round in circles about poxy DRP junk mail, each other's threads so you can compare notes by pm instead?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4818413

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4832773

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4833470

I for one, can't keep commenting on these identical 4 threads as this is ONLY about junk mail and there are people with new PCNs who need to help to appeal. We get this same type of thread every week and it's already covered on the sticky threads what your options are now.

Please post any questions if something really new happens (not just the next letter in the chain) but going round in circles on 4 threads is not getting anywhere.